Broadsides at college misguided

All across the nation, students are graduating from colleges, striding across stages with degrees in their hands and hope in their hearts. And their beaming-with-pride, deep-in-debt parents watch them step into the future.

Nothing could rain on their parade - except maybe curmudgeons such as billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Secretary of Education William Bennett, who have tried recently to tell college students and their parents that, for most graduates, they have just completed an expensive mistake.

The timing of this elitist message could not be worse. And their nearly wholesale dismissal of a traditional liberal arts education undermines the value of a well-rounded education.

On a radio show recently, Bloomberg, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the Harvard Business School, gave this advice to would-be college students: Don't do it. Become a plumber instead.

"The people who are going to have the biggest problem are college graduates who aren't rocket scientists, if you will, not at the top of their class," Bloomberg said. "Compare a plumber to going to Harvard College - being a plumber, actually for the average person, probably would be a better deal. You don't spend ... four years spending $40,000, $50,000 in tuition without earning income."

Bennett, on a book tour to promote his just-published "Is College Worth It?", is saying pretty much the same thing. He says college is "worth it" only if you get into a top-tier university like Stanford, or study an in-demand field like nuclear engineering. Of the 3,500 colleges and universities in the country, Bennett contends only 150 institutions - about 4 percent - provide any real payoff in terms of money invested in a college education.

Granted. Some students majoring in less-marketable fields and taking on debt to do so wind up unemployed and deep in debt. College is not for everyone, the economy is still unsettled and there are alternatives to a four-year degree (community colleges, trade schools, etc).

But the views expressed by Bennett and Bloomberg not only are an insult to the outstanding colleges and universities not deemed part of the elite - and to their graduates - but dismissive of the value of a well-rounded education, potential earning power notwithstanding.

In fact, there is real value in a liberal arts education. In April, the Association of American Colleges and Universities released a survey showing that employers want more than knowledge about a particular field. Ninety-three percent of the 318 business leaders who responded agreed that a "demonstrated capacity to think critically, communicate clearly and solve complex problems" is more important than a job candidate's major. And that is precisely what a liberal arts education should do, in addition to giving students a basic knowledge of history, the arts, science and the social sciences.

But students today, as always, need to remember they will only get out of college what they put into it. Students who apply themselves can get a good education anywhere. Sadly, there is ample evidence that many of them aren't putting nearly enough effort into it.

In 2010, research conducted by two California economics professors showed that over the past five decades, the number of hours that the average college student studied each week has been steadily dropping.

According to time-use surveys analyzed by professors Philip Babcock at the University of California Santa Barbara and Mindy Marks at the University of California Riverside, the average student at a four-year college in 1961 studied about 24 hours a week. Today's average student hits the books for just 14 hours.

In 2010, in a work called "Academically Adrift," New York University's Richard Arum and the University of Virginia's Josipa Roksa found that more than a third of the 2,300 undergraduates at two dozen U.S. universities they tracked showed no improvement in critical thinking, analytical reasoning or written communications over four years. And the majors and programs often thought most practical - education, business and communications - were the least productive.

Since then, their research has been sharply criticized, but the broad point remains: The value of a college education depends upon students who are actively engaged in the work of higher education - and upon colleges and professors who refuse to let students skate their way through their four years.

Colleges and universities, as well as the students who attend them, have their flaws. But to imply, as Bennett and Bloomberg do, that unless you are at the top of the class in a top-tier school you might as well skip college, is needlessly harsh and misguided.

Students must be encouraged to find the educational track best suited to them. And those who graduate from college - whether it's an "elite" school or not - deserve to hold their heads high. The value of a good college education for students who apply themselves is measured in more than dollars and cents. It is measured in the development of citizens who think well, communicate well and have a broad base of knowledge about the world.

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Broadsides at college misguided

All across the nation, students are graduating from colleges, striding across stages with degrees in their hands and hope in their hearts. And their beaming-with-pride, deep-in-debt parents watch

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